Outsider Chronicles: Count of Blood

When I died, the very last thing I was expecting was to end up in the world of Worm and as Taylors brother at that. Well, adopted brother. As it turns out, my family history might well be more insane than I thought. The Marquis of Bone might have been caged, but the Count of Blood takes the stage. Fortunately, I have no designs on being a gang leader.

Right, I've actually had this idea for a while, but I've never been able to figure out a good way to do it. Now, with judicious application of imagination and a bit of help from Anubis of the Highway Thieves, I finally have a plan. Not entirely what I had in mind, but it works fine. I'm also going to have to make a slight alteration to the timeline by pushing Marquis defeat back two years, so Amy was three when she was adopted by the Dallons. Other than that, everythings the same. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

When I died to having an oversized model of the First Blade split my head open, I was understandably rather peeved. Fortunately, it seems that death wasn't the end for me. Oh no, in fact, it was only the beginning as I was reborn. Well, this would certainly be an interesting life.

Or not. Well, it would be interesting, but it looked like it'd be rather short. Why do I think that? Well, that would be because I haven't been reborn into a normal world, instead I had been reborn into the world of Worm with all its fucked up problems.

I don't really remember many details about my first year, just some vague images of a brown haired man with a white smile and a two year old girl playing with me, probably my sister. However, I have no idea who they were or what happened to them, but I know for a fact I don't live with them anymore. Oh no, instead I'm apparently Taylor Hebert's adopted brother/cousin. Yeah, turns out that the Hebert's were my aunt and uncle...both ways. Its a long and convoluted story, but apparently my Dad and Danny were best friends and roommates at university and ended up marrying each others sisters.

I still had no idea who my Dad was though or what happened to my apparent sister and no one seemed to be willing to tell me. That said, I had been able to figure out a few things. First of, he was likely a Parahuman and a powerful and very dangerous one at that. Second, he was most definitely not on the side of the angels. The reason I thought that was because, when asked about him, my parents would always look nervus and tell me that they'd tell me when I was older. If he was dead, they'd look more sad, but their reaction made me think that either he was still at large...or in the Birdcage.

As it turned out, I was correct on all three counts. When I was 14, I was rummaging through the attic, looking for some old stuff for an event school was putting on when I stumbled onto a photograph. It was a photo of graduation and showed four young people grinning at the camera. Two of them were obviously Annette and Danny, while the other two were clearly their siblings, my parents. I'd seen images of my Mother before, but my Dad was conspicuously absent from any photographs, making the likelihood of him being rather infamous more and more likely. My Mother (who was definitely dead) shared Danny's straw-coloured hair and green eyes, which I also had, although I apparently had my Dads dark brown, wavy hair and blatantly masculine build, even before puberty really kicked in.

I studied the man with interest, noting that I shared his facial shape as well as his build and hair. If he was anything to go by, I'd be quite the looker when I grew up. Narcissism aside, I couldn't help but think he looked oddly familiar, especially his rather gaudy looking necklace with a pair of large rings on it.

I frowned as I shifted to lean on the box behind me, racking my brains to try and figure out why my Dads face looked so familiar...before i let out a yelp as the box decided to give way, sending me to the floor with a thump and shower of old papers.

"OK, that hurt," I muttered as I sat up, rubbing the back of my head and shoving away the newspapers that covered me, "Why the hell are there this many papers up...here…"

I trailed off as I saw the front page of the paper that just so happened to be in my lap. It was from just under 13 years ago, specifically Marquis arrest by New Wave, then the Brockton Bay Brigade. However, none of the text registered to me, instead, I found myself staring at Marquis face. Then I looked at the photo of my parents graduation.

"Oh, so thats why," I said weakly.

Well, that certainly explained why Danny and Annette were so wary of telling me who my Dad was at least. If anyone found out that I was Marquis son, shit would hit the fan pretty fucking quick. Amy had New Wave to keep her safe and had her reputation as an invaluable Cape to protect her. I on the other hand had no such defence and...HANG ON A SEC! If the Heberts were my Aunt and Uncle, that meant...oh, now that really is too much! I wonder how this would affect the future? It might even have an effect on Taylors powers if she found out. Would it? Could it? I don't even know…

Darknessspacetwistingmonstrocitiesashardhertlingtowardsme…

THUMP!

I jolted. Something had changed. I wasn't sure what it was, but it felt like something inside of me had just clicked into place. I could feel my blood throbbing in my veins far more keenly than I should have done. I frowned. Why would that…

"OUCH!"

I jumped as the sensation of someone running a very sharp knife across my arm made me look down, just in time to see a long gash open up on the back of my arm from wrist to elbow, allowing a large amount of blood to flow out and quickly solidify into a blade.

"Ah, thats whats changed," I muttered as I examined the blood blade.

It kinda made sense. My…Father could control bone, my sister flesh and me, blood. I just hope that I could generate a lot of the stuff or I was gonna be pretty limited in what I could do. That was for later though, for now I needed to go and talk to my Aunt and Uncle about this. My dad, not my powers. I hesitantly tried to move the blood blade and it responded by flowing back inside my body and the wound sealed up. Hmm, I don't think that should have been possible without causing me serious problems with my blood flow. I made a mental note to experiment later and headed downstairs. It was time for an awkward conversation.

I found Mum in the kitchen by following my nose. She looked up as I entered the room and smiled.

"Hey Jack, you find what you were looking for?" she asked.

"Not exactly," I said, "I did find this though."

I held up the photo and old paper. At the sight of them, Mum froze.

"Ah, that," she said.

"Yep, that," I said, "So, my Dad really is Marquis?"

Mum sighed.

"Yes, he is," she said, "Come on, it'd be better to sit down for this."

I followed her into the sitting room and dropped onto the sofa as she sat in the armchair. For a moment, there was silence as Mum gathered her thoughts.

"I take it that you want to know about the man, rather than the Villain," she said eventually.

I nodded. You could find information about Marquis easily online after all.

"Alright, I suppose I ought to start by saying that John never intended to become a Villain," said Mum, "Truth be told, I don't think anyone does. No one gets up one morning and decides that they are going to murder people at random. It was a thousand bad choices and situations that led my brother down his path, not all of them his."

She snorted.

"At his core, John was a good man. When he got his powers, he intended to use them to make the City a better place. This was at a time when the Teeth and the E88 were making the city far to dangerous for practically everyone and the Protectorate were on the ropes. Unfortunately, his power isn't exactly the most PR friendly and the Heroes at the time were rather jumpy. As a result, on his first night out, he was mistaken for a Villain by an overzealous Hero and ended up getting saved by a group of relatively minor Villains."

I frowned. This was starting to sound more and more familiar.

"He got the bright idea that he might be able to help the Heroes by acting as a double agent and tried to infiltrate the Villains ranks," continued Mum and sighed deeply, "To cut a long story short, he got in to deep and ended up getting stuck. By the time that happened though, he had made a number of friends in the Villains circles and had become disillusioned towards the Heroes and their poor attempts at cleaning up the city. In the end, he decided that he could do more to help as a monster than as a Hero. Despite everything though, he still stuck to his old convictions and was willing to act as a family man when not in costume."

Alright, now that sounded really familiar! Good god, thats practically what happened to Taylor in Canon! There were a few other things I wanted cleared up though.

"So, if Marquis was willing to be a family man, how did I end up here?" I asked, "I assume that he would have taken me in after Mum died?"

Mum sighed. She'd been doing that a lot, but I can't really blame her.

"John had asked us to look after you that night," she said, "You were just over a year old and he really didn't trust any of his goons to watch over you while he was out with Amelia."

I frowned.

"Whos Amelia?" I asked.

Mum gave a slightly weak smile.
"Shes your older sister," she said, "She was ill at the time and John was taking her to the hospital for a checkup when New Wave attacked his house."

"I have a sister?" I asked, making sure to sound surprised, "Huh...what happened to her?"

Mum sighed again.

"She was taken in by the Dallons," she said, "You have to understand, we would have tried to get her as well, but we already had Taylor and taking in an extra two kids just wouldn't have been possible. Plus, kicking up a fuss could have resulted in your identities as Marquis kids getting out and that could have been disastrous."

"Yeah, I can imagine," I said, "Wait, if thats true then that means that my Sisters Panacea, right?"

Mum looked impressed.

"Quick on the uptake as usual I see," she said, "Your right, she is your Sister. I wouldn't recommend approaching her about this though. I don't think she knows who her real Father is."

"Yeah, I can certainly see how that would go badly," I said, "Anyone who looks at her can see shes having problems and I somehow doubt that finding out Dads a supervillain would help matters."

Mum nodded in agreement. For a moment, we sat in silence before Mum spoke up again.
"Jack, you can't tell anyone about this," she said, "Even after all this time, if anyone were to find out Marquis had a kid…"

"I know, I know," I said, "But...I don't think I can keep this from Taylor."

Mum tilted her head.

"No, me either," she said, "Eavesdropping is rude young lady!"

There was a yelp from the door, before it opened and a sheepish looking Taylor came in.

"Sorry," she muttered.

"You understand that you can't tell anyone either young lady?" said Mum, "Not even Emma?"

Taylor nodded.

"I know," she said, "I'm not stupid. Still...it is kinda strange to think we're related to a supervillain."

She shot a look my way from under her bangs.

"And you have a real sister…"

I blinked at her tone, before I smirked and grabbed her hand, tugging her down so I could give her a big hug.

"Aww come on Tay, don't look like that," I said, "We might not be real siblings, but your still the best sister in the world!"

Taylor giggled and hugged me back and we quickly devolved into playful wrestling on the couch. Mum smiled and got to her feet, heading back to start working on dinner. Before she left the room, I remembered a question I had.

"Oh, Mum, before you go, can I ask you something?" I said.

"You just did, but sure," said Mum.

I rolled my eyes at the obvious joke, but plowed on regardless.

"Do you know which hero it was?" I asked, "The one who mistook Dad for a villain?"

Mum gave me a searching look as Taylor also looked up in interest.

"Why do you want to know?" she asked.

I shrugged.

"Just curious," I said, "If my Dad was a Cape, I'm likely to Trigger myself, so it'd be nice to know who to avoid on my first night out."

Mum eyed me for a moment longer, before turning back to the door.

"It was Armsmaster," she said and left.

It took all I had to keep my jaw from hitting the floor in shock.

And that'll do. A bit short, but it hits all the bases and works nicely for what I had in mind. Just to be clear, I won't be bashing Armsmaster, I just wanted to create an interesting parallel between Taylor and Marquis.

Make no mistake, Marquis more than deserved to get Caged, but I wanted to make it so he wasn't just another psycho. Hes just what Canon Taylor could have potentially become.

You can probably guess that Jacks debut and reveal later down the line as Marquis kid will result in the shit hitting the fan big time, especially when you consider that I have plans for him to make friends with a good chunk of the New Wave before then.

Jack is in the same academic year as Taylor, but only just. Hes nearly a year younger, so he'll be about 14 by the start of Worms canon.

Jacks power is obviously Hemokinesis, although it also affects his bodys ability to create and store blood. Basically, so long as he has the biomass to produce it, his body is capable of producing a frankly obscene amount of the red stuff. From there, he can shape it, solidify it and more. Like Marquis, if he can see blood from another source, he can also take control of it, although he is Manton limited. Not really that much of a limitation though when you consider the fact he could tear someone body apart by pulling all the blood out through a cut. So yeah, not exactly PR friendly.

For those interested, Jacks Cape name will be Count. The reasoning there should be obvious, but in case its not, the title Count is a step below Marquis and its also a reference to Count Dracula for his Hemokinesis. Inventive, I know.

Right, that'll do. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!